SaskatchewanDillon Whitehawk has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court after Saskatchewan’s decision to uphold his conviction in the 2020 gang-related murder of a Regina mother. Whitehawk was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 yearsAliyah Marko-Omene · CBC News · Posted: Nov 24, 2025 2:15 PM EST | Last Updated: 5 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Dillon Whitehawk was convicted of second-degree murder in the death of 29-year-old Keesha Bitternose. (Regina Police Service/Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench)Dillon Whitehawk has filed an appeal with the Supreme Court after Saskatchewan’s decision to uphold his conviction in the 2020 gang-related murder of a Regina mother. Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal made its decision in October in the conviction of Whitehawk for second-degree murder in the death of 29-year-old Keesha Bitternose. Two out of three appeal court judges rejected Whitehawk’s appeal of his December 2022 conviction and all three dismissed an attempt by the Crown to appeal the verdict of second-degree murder in favour of first-degree murder.Thomas Hynes, Whitehawk’s lawyer, spoke to CBC News Monday confirming the appeal has been filed to Canada’s top court based on Justice Jillyne Drennan’s dissenting opinion.Justice Drennan agreed with their argument that the trial judge had not provided sufficient evidence for a conviction, he added.“We hope the Supreme Court overturns Mr. Whitehawk’s conviction, and grants him a new trial and case,” Hynes said. Whitehawk has an automatic right to appeal with the highest court, but cannot discuss matters that are not included in the arguments accepted by the dissent, he said. Hynes said they are hopeful the Supreme Court will agree with those arguments. Whitehawk now has eight weeks to submit any written material to the court, including a factum and record of the case. Hynes added that the Supreme Court will then set the case down for a hearing a couple weeks after that is filed.“Likely in the spring of 2026 is what I’d expect,” he said. Bitternose’s body was discovered in January 2020 inside of a home on Cameron Street known to be a gang hangout. A forensic pathologist testified during Whitehawk’s 2023 trial that the Regina mother had too many wounds from being beaten, stabbed and possibly shot to determine her cause of death. Before Keesha Bitternose died, her family says the mother had plans to leave gang life to finish her social work degree and pursue a master’s program. (Submitted by Lynea George)Whitehawk was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years — the maximum sentence for second-degree murder. Justice Janet McMurtry said Whitehawk had shown no remorse for Bitternose’s death in announcing the sentence and called him a “serial murderer.”Whitehawk has previous first-degree murder convictions from 2022 in the separate drive-by shooting deaths of Jordan Denton and Keenan Toto three years prior.He successfully appealed those convictions and was granted a new trial, now slated to begin in March 2026. The Crown alleged at trial that Whitehawk had killed the two men to secure a promotion inside the Indian Mafia gang.ABOUT THE AUTHORAliyah Marko-Omene is a reporter for CBC Saskatchewan. She has previously worked for CBC and Toronto Star in Toronto. You can reach her at aliyah.marko@cbc.ca.With files from Phil Tank
Dillon Whitehawk files appeal with Supreme Court in 2022 murder conviction
